


Spirit of Radio

by BarPurple



Series: Radio Ga Ga [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Blood Drinking, DJ!Rum, F/M, Human!Belle, Supernatural Elements, Vampire!Rum, woobies in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 11:32:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12480608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Rum Gold knew there was a connection between the fearless Beauty he had fed on and himself, he just had no idea how strong that connection was.





	Spirit of Radio

Rum stared at the door in front of him, it hadn’t changed in the last five minutes, which is how long he’d been stood here trying to gather the courage to ring the bell. 

The fearless Beauty had invited him back, she’d appeared to want to see him again, but she might have changed her mind in the hour it had taken him to dump her oaf of a date in an alley. He could have been quicker, but he’d wanted to make sure that whatshisname was well away from her, so he’d woven through the back streets until he was halfway across town. He smirked to himself, the oaf was going to be very confused when he came around in that piss soaked back street behind one of the roughest bars in town. Rum had shaken him awake enough to plant his command; forget tonight; he would have liked to implant an order to never treat a woman like that again, but he long ago discovered that he couldn’t alter basic nature, unfortunately. 

He’d made his way back to her apartment, after a quick stop at an all-night bodega to buy her flowers. The daisies were bright and fresh, he hoped they would bring a smile to her face. Through the door he could feel the call of her blood and finally that overcame his fears, he rang the bell and waited.

The door was thrown open so fast she must have been waiting on the other side.

“You came back. You stood there for so long I thought you were having second thoughts.”

Rum blinked at the implication of her rapid words, she had been watching him through the peep-hole, but had waited until he rang the bell. Could it be she was as excited to see him as he was to see her? Remembering himself he offered her the flowers.

“I, erm, I saw these and thought you might like them…”

She bit her lip, which did nothing to hide her smile. Rum was a bit confused as to why she didn’t say anything as she stepped back, but then it dawned on him that she was testing if he could enter her home without an invitation. He made a show of stepping over the threshold. She raised her eyebrows and nodded; “Okay, I know you’ve been here before, but I was curious if the whole invited in thing was legit. Is it?”

Rum moved forward so she could close the door behind him, he had no qualms about telling her everything about his unlife, but that didn’t mean he wanted anyone passing to overhear. Once the door clicked shut he said; “Oddly enough the myth has it backwards. Vampires can’t enter public buildings without an explicit invitation from someone in a position of power in that building.”

She took that new information with a slight smile, and took the posy from his hands sending a thrill through him as their fingers brushed.

“So, do you know my name?”

“Erm, no. I’ve been calling you Beauty in my head.”

She threw her head back and laughed; “Oh I love coincidence. My name is Belle, Belle French.”

He couldn’t help but grin at how fitting his nickname had been. He gave her a small bow; “It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss French. I am, as you know, Rum Gold.”

Belle grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the couch; “Okay sit right there while I put these in some water. I have so many questions.”

He waited while she rushed around in the kitchen, cupboard doors banged as she muttered to herself. It struck him as odd that a wonderful woman like Belle had to scrabble around for a vase. Surely she must receive flowers on a regular basis? He had his answer when she returned with the daisies in a glass pitcher. She blushed as she caught his eye; “I don’t have a vase.”

Rum swore to himself there and then that even if she never wanted to see him again he would send her a vase filled with flowers once a week anonymously, Belle would have flowers in her life to make her smile. She dropped onto the other end of the couch and took a deep breath as she pulled a notepad from under the cushion.

“I made a list of the questions I wanted to ask you. Is that okay?”

He settled himself against the couch cushions; “Okay Christian Slater, ask away.”

She laughed at his film reference and flipped open her note book as she groped for a pen on the table.

“Okay, Louis, how old are you?”

Rum was surprised that she was starting with the basics; “I’m seventy-four. I was thirty when I became a vampire.”

“Did you ask to be changed?” Belle bit her lip again, “Sorry what is the term for becoming a vampire?”

“Erm, Changed works fine, I always think of it as Turned, I have heard some say they were Embraced. It depends I think on the individuals. And to answer your question, no I didn’t ask to become a vampire, I begged not to die.”

Belle gave him a worried look, “Okay, can we come back to the specifics later, I’ve got a lot of general questions.”

“Aye that’s fine,”

It was more than fine, it was a relief that she wanted the general overview first, once she got into the fine details of his own story she’d be appalled and push him away.

“I know you can have your photo taken because it’s up on the radio station’s website, but what about mirrors, do you have a reflection?”

“I do, but you know the phrase you are what you eat? Well it’s very true for vampires,” – She frowned at him, so he explained, - “We avoid mirrors because is not fun to see the last person you fed from looking back at you.”

Belle jumped up and covered the mirror above the mantel with a scarf. She shrugged at him when she turned back around; “Well, that last meal I know you had was Gaston, I don’t want that twat back in my home, even in reflection.”

Rum grinned at the thoughtfulness of her actions; “He won’t even remember that he met either of us, and thank you.”

She curled back on to the couch closer to him than before, not by much, but closer.

“That’s my next question, how did you do that? Is that mind control?”

“Aye, sort of, I think it’s closer to hypnotic suggestion, but suggestion is the wrong word, erm command might better.”

Belle rubbed at her wrist, the one he had fed from; “So that dream I had where you appeared and fed from me wasn’t a dream was it? You told me to sleep, didn’t you?”

Her face, which he’d seen to be so expressive, was oddly blank as she spoke. A shiver of panic ran through him, he’d upset her, and he only had himself to blame.

“I’m sorry. I fed from you once, just a sip, and I swear I’ll never do it again.”

She blinked at him; “Oh, if that’s what you want. I don’t think that worries too much, as long as you don’t drain me dry I mean. It’s the mind control I’m uncomfortable with. I was just trying to work out if this felt the same as last time…”

His hands fluttered as he reached for her and then thought better of it; “I promise you I’ve not done anything to influence you, and I swear I will never use than aspect of my nature on you ever again.”

It wasn’t the most reassuring promise, and it had a few glaring loopholes in it, but Rum couldn’t promise to never use some of his nature on her, he still didn’t fully understand how the connection his feeding had created worked, he wasn’t about to make a promise he couldn’t keep. He held her eyes, his heart thudding in his throat as he waited for her to tell him to leave.

“I believe you,” – she gave a soft laugh, - “Strange to say, but I trust you, Rum.”

Had he still been human he would be concerned about the gymnastics his heart was performing, no mere blood pump should be flipping and jumping for joy as his was right now.

“Thank you, Belle.”

She blushed a touch and dipped her eyes back to her notebook.

“The whole invite thing, you said you can’t enter public buildings, like churches?”

He nodded, and she continued; “So, is that where the fear of religious icons idea comes from do you think?”

“I guess so, but I have no reaction to looking at a crucifix.”

“How did you buy flowers? Don’t shops count as public buildings?”

Rum opened his mouth to answer and then closed it with a frown; “I’ve never thought about that. Shops and places of business I can come and go as I please, but not religious buildings, hospitals, libraries, or castles unless I’m invited.”

She pouted a little when he mentioned libraries; “I guess it makes sense that the places people go in times of trouble are safe,” – She gave him a worried look, - “I mean safe from bad vampires.”

“I know what you mean, and you’re right it does make sense.”

She blew out a quick breath, clearly relieved that she hadn’t offended him; “Not many castles for you to worry about in Maine.”

“Aye, but I didn’t start out in Maine, there are a lot of castles in Scotland.”

“Well that answers the can you travel across running water question. Did you need to bring soil from your homeland?”

Rum threw his head back and laughed; “No, and I don’t sleep in a coffin. I have, but there’s not much elbow room and I like to sprawl when I sleep.”

Belle’s cheeks coloured slightly and she cleared her throat; “I need a drink. Do you want some wine? Can you drink wine?”

“I can drink dramatic pause vine.”

She tutted at his frankly terrible Dracula accent; “Is white okay?”

He nodded and rose to his feet as she stood up, she tilted her head at his old-fashioned manners and waved him to sit back down. He did as she bid and let his eyes wander around the room. It was filled with books, floor to ceiling in some places, and more than one shelf was double stacked. Ah, maybe that explained the pout she’d made when he said he couldn’t go into libraries, he’d lay money that they were one of her favourite places. He knew so little about her. Was he being selfish? The lion’s share of their conversation had been about him, well his vampire nature anyway. He should be asking her things too, but he’d found her curiosity enthralling and it had been so very long since he’d been able to talk to a human who wasn’t in the slightest bit afraid of him.

The sound of the toilet flushing made him jump. He really wasn’t used to hearing everyday sounds of human life anymore. He’d composed himself by the time Belle returned from the kitchen carrying two wine glasses. He stood again and took the offered glass.

“You read a lot.”

“I wouldn’t be a very good librarian if I didn’t.”

He sat down after her and saw his chance to learn more about her; “Which library do you work at?”

“The one here in town. I’d say I’m the head librarian, but I’m the only librarian so it’s not much of a boast.”

He knew the library, of course, it was hard to miss the imposing building on the corner of Main Street. It was open late on Wednesday nights and always looked busy when he ambled by.

“How to you manage to run that place on your own?”

She shifted, and her knees brushed against his thigh sending a shiver through his blood that he hoped she didn’t notice.

“There is a staff, I’m just the only qualified librarian.”

There was something in her tone that suggested she wasn’t content with this situation, but he wasn’t sure how to ask what was wrong, so he asked; “What books do you like to read?”

She waved a hand at him, “Start me on books and that’s all we’ll talk about. How often am I going to get the chance to ask a real vampire about himself?”

He wanted to say that he would visit her every night if she wanted, but anxiety overtook him, and he couldn’t get the words out before she’d asked another question.

“What about sunlight?”

He took a sip of wine to cover the wince as he recalled the one time he’d been caught by the sun since he Turned.

“Sunlight is bad. I don’t burst into flames, but it feels like it, third degree burns aren’t fun at all. I heal up eventually, but that was not a pleasant fortnight.”

She reached for his hand and wrapped her fingers around his; “Oh, oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up painful memories for you.”

He slowly turned his hand in hers and gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze.

“I don’t mind. It was a long time ago.”

She left her hand in his, the steady thrum of her pulse dancing under his fingers; “Do you miss the sun?”

He shrugged and gave her a wry smile; “I grew up in Scotland, so it’s not like I saw it very often when I was human.”

She laughed at his quip; “The weather can’t be that bad there.”

He raised his eyebrows at her and nodded seriously; “Aye it can be, oh okay May is pretty nice, but the rest of the year its either freezing cold, or pissing down, or blowing a gale.”

“And they are the only types of weather Scotland gets?”

“Well, no sometimes it snows,” – she laughed again, - “I’m serious Glasgow Police get calls reporting a glowing UFO in the sky when the sun comes out.”

She choked on the sip of wine she’d just taken. Rum didn’t have time to mourn the loss of her hand in his worry for her breathing. He cautiously patted her on the back until she spluttered; “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

She looked down at the dribbles of wine on her shirt and huffed; “Very elegant Belle.”

“We should put that in to soak so it doesn’t stain.”

Belle cocked an eyebrow at him and it dawned on him that his suggestion sounded like a line to get her to undress.

“I’m sorry. Just I deal with stains a lot and it’s a nice shirt, so I … I… I’ll just stop talking now.”

She smiled at him; “It’s sweet. Gimme a minute to get changed?”

He nodded and frowned a little when she didn’t move to stand up.

“Are you going to bounce up when I get up?”

“Erm, not if you don’t want me to?”

This wasn’t the first time someone had commented on his old-fashioned manners. Until tonight he’d gotten to habit under control, but he wanted to be a gentleman for Belle.

She looked at him expectantly as she slowly got up and he couldn’t resist teasing her just a little by bobbing forward with a grin. She pointed a stern finger at him and he leaned back into the couch.

“Stay put, I’ll be quick.”

She bounced away and he took another sip of wine, so he didn’t stare after her. White wine wasn’t his first choice of drink, he found it tart and bitter, but this one was good. His eyes strayed to the bookcases again and he tilted his head to make out the titles. The first shelf he looked at was all horror, Stephen King, James Herbert and Best of Collections edited by Stephen Jones. He thought he’d got an idea of Belle’s taste until he looked at the next shelf and found the books were all poetry; Keats, Shelley, Donne, Marvell, and a dozen others he didn’t recognize. Curious now he put his wine glass on the coffee table and stood up to take a closer look.

He gave a low whistle, at the rest of the shelves; Austen and Bronte, Dickens and Twain rubbed shoulders with Dan Brown and Terry Pratchett. Tolkien and JK Rowling held a shelf to themselves, while the next was filled with David Eddings and a few Neil Gaiman. Shakespeare, Chaucer, the Brothers Grimm, and Mills and Boons. Belle it seemed read everything.

“I told you if we started talking books we wouldn’t stop.”

He whipped around at her voice and found her leaning against the doorframe.

“I didn’t mean to snoop.”

She gave and easy shrug; “It’s not like you had to open anything to find the books, you weren’t snooping.”

Belle moved to the stereo and made a sound of disappointment when she found it unresponsive.

“I was going to suggest we put some music on, but I think you broke it.”

Rum hid behind his hair as she turned on the ball of her foot, instead of telling him that he owed her a new one she asked; “How do you do that? Appeared out of thin air like you did earlier?”

“I don’t just poof out of thin air. I travel along the radio waves.”

Intrigue lit up her face and she hopped over the back of the couch to sit down, and patted the seat next to her with a smile.

“Okay this is cool, please explain.”

He pushed his hair out of his face and sat down next to her, angled so he could look at her.

“Okay, for years I didn’t know I could. I know there are some vampires who can turn into wolves, and big cats, but I’ve never heard of anyone else being able to radio travel.”

He could see Belle was itching to ask a question, so he paused.

“No bats then?”

“Not that I know of.”

She gave him a quick nod and he continued; “I still don’t understand how it works, but If I’m at the source, the station, I can hear anyone who is tuned in, I can listen to them. Loads of people on their own sing along, or talk back to the DJ,” – he gave a shy smile, - “Or yell at him when he misquotes Frankenstein.”

Belle’s hand flew to her mouth; “Oh my god. You heard that?”

“Aye, why do you think I announced a correction after the next song?”

She gasped and batted his arm; “You said you’d got an angry email telling you to read the bloody book.”

His eyes widened in surprise; “You remember that?”

“Of course.”

He felt his face heat up, she remembered things he had said on his show, wow. His heart was doing jumping jacks again. He took a breath he didn’t need and tried to pick up the thread of what he had been saying.

“Erm, aye so when I found out I if I focused on one voice I could travel to them, the job at the radio station seemed like a good idea since it gave me a way to find, erm, ah…”

“To find meals?”

“Yeah.”

“Like me.”

“Yeah.”

Belle was rubbing at her wrist again and Rum took it between his hands. She didn’t resist as he examined the delicate skin there. He frowned and ran his thumbs over the raised red bumps that he knew would be a perfect match for his fangs.

“This should have healed by now, I was so careful.”

“Oh, it had, but its flared up again since you’ve been here.”

Rum went cold and felt sweat break out down his spine. He’d heard of this happening, but only in the sense of someone who knew someone, who had heard of someone that it had happened to; a pure connection, it was legend, myth, an old vampire wives’ tale.

“Rum? You’ve gone very pale. Do you need to feed again?”

He swallowed the whimper that rose in his throat at her suggestion and rapidly shook his head.

“No, but I think I can make this better, if you’ll allow?”

She nodded without hesitation. He dipped his head, moving slowly so she could pull away. Belle lifted her wrist to his mouth and he dragged his tongue over her wrist making sure to cover the wound he had left thoroughly. Belle sighed, and he jerked back as his fangs descended. He didn’t need to feed, but the desire to taste Belle’s blood again was so strong.

“You are hungry. Go on if you need to. I don’t mind, I’d like you to.”

He couldn’t hold back the whimper this time.

“Belle.”

Her name left his lips as a plea, thought a plea for what he wasn’t sure. She appeared to have no doubts at all as she knelt up on the couch and offer him her wrist. When he made no move to take what she was offering she pulled her hair over one shoulder baring her neck to him.

“Would you prefer this?”

Rum’s claws were gouging holes into the couch cushions, some dim part of his mind noted that he now owed her a new couch as well as a new stereo. He didn’t dare go for her throat, as tempting as it was he didn’t trust himself.

“Wrist, please?”

She nodded and leaned forward offering her wrist to his mouth. He let his fangs graze over her skin finding the throb of her pulse, he paused before giving in and biting in to her delicate flesh.

The scent of flowers, books, and strong tea washed over him as her heavenly taste flooded his tongue. Belle drew in a sharp breath and he just had the presence of mind to lick to wound closed before he pulled away.

“Belle? Belle are you alright?”

She inhaled slowly through her nose and blew of the breath, they were still so close that her warm exhale whispered across his face.

“I … I can taste rain, and lightening and, and wool?”

Rum’s fangs slid back into his gums and he focused on her wrist as he said; “I think we are connected. I smelled tea, flowers and books.”

A gentle pressure on his chin made his raise his head and he fell into her eyes.

“This isn’t an everyday reaction, is it?”

“No.”

She looked away from him for an instant and bit her lip again. 

“It’s nearly four in the morning, the sun will be coming up in a few hours, and the only stereo I have isn’t working.”

He nodded sadly, he was going to have to leave now to make it back to his house on the edge of town before the sun rose.

“I need to sleep.”

“I know, I’ve kept you up far too late. I’ll, erm, I’ll…”

He couldn’t bring himself to say that he would leave. He didn’t want to go, but he was going to have to else he was going to end up fried. Belle licked her lips; “My bedroom had black out curtains, will that be enough to keep you safe?”

“What? Erm, sorry, are you … are you suggesting that I stay?”

Belle nodded quickly; “I mean … if you want too?”

“Yes. Yes please.”

She caught his hands in hers and jerked her head towards her bedroom.

“Shall we?”

Rum’s heart was in his throat and he had to swallow it down before he could speak.

“I’d like that, Belle.”


End file.
